Sun Microsystems is ramping up its efforts in the highly competitive rich Internet application space by rolling out a new product set called JavaFX that is designed to compete directly with Adobe AIR and Flex, as well as Microsoft Silverlight. Java has always had many of the aspects of RIAs, and JavaFX offers several benefits, including use of the Java run-time and the underlying Java code. However, while Java has a strong presence in mobile apps development, JavaFX 1.0 currently does not support mobile platforms.With rich Internet applications becoming
a key trend in Web and application development, it’s not surprising that more development
platform vendors are looking to grab a piece of the rapidly growing space.
In recent years, the RIA space has
been dominated by Adobe Systems’ Flash, Flex and AIR
platforms, with Microsoft making a strong push with its Silverlight offering.
That said, for many developers, RIAs
are nothing new. In fact, those developers can point to a platform that has
been providing RIA capabilities for many years now—Sun Microsystems’ Java.
After all, Java has always made it
possible to deliver Web-aware applications for both the browser and the desktop.
Java also has all of the GUI features that one would find in any development
platform.
The problem has been that Java is
pretty much for developers only. While systems such as Flash can be easily
learned by talented graphics and Web professionals, Java has always required a
developer skill set.
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